The Beginning of The End
by Cyanide-Princess-666
Summary: ALTERNATIVE SEQUEL TO WISTFUL KISSES. Where there is no light, there is only darkness. Grimm is coming.
1. Anguish

_**The Beginning of The End: Chapter One...**_

_**Guess who's back? Bring on the madness.**_

**oO0Oo**

Valkyrie skidded to a halt outside an open door. She heard a faint thump and felt her heart sink. Far away, the sounds of fighting echoed through the corridors. Inching towards the door, she peered into the dark room. She could see dirty clothes, a low wooden cot, and the faint outline of a thin, bloodied arm. She lurched forward and the wood slammed into the wall, swinging in its frame.

Art had the grey pallor of death, eyes open as he stared at a ceiling he couldn't see. Deep gashes marred his fair skin, mottled with yellowing bruises. His limbs stuck out at odd angles, all broken. Several of his wounds were infected, yellow liquid dried on his body, and his chest neither rose nor fell. He was dead.

Val's thoughts flashed to Emma, fighting outside to save a boy who was already dead, to her family risking their lives to collect a corpse. She choked back a sob and stumbled to his side, touching his broken hand.

He was still warm, only recently dead. That must've been the thump she heard, his limbs falling slack as his body gave up. Frustration boiled as she threw a punch into the ground, the slate floor cracking around her gauntlet. Too late, just seconds too late to save him. Emma was going to be devastated.

Footsteps in the corridor outside alerted her to Skulduggery's approach.

"Stay outside," she said, and listened as his footfalls ceased. A moment passed before he spoke.

"You found him." It wasn't a question. There was a pause, and then, "He's dead, isn't he."

"...Yeah. He died as I reached the room." She felt a hand on her back as Skulduggery entered the room and pulled her gently to her feet.

"We came to save him, we were too late. Now we come to take him away from here. We have to move him."

"I know," she sighed. "But to move him we have to tell Emma. We can't keep this from her, but I can't face telling her Skul. It'll destroy her."

"She's a tough girl Valkyrie, and she has us and her brother to help her through it."

Skulduggery stooped to lift Art from his death bed, cradling his frail body like a newborn. Every bone was visible; not only had he been abused, he'd been starved. What a horrible way to die, starved by your own father and beaten to death. His own flesh and blood had left him to rot.

"We can't tell her that he died alone," Valkyrie said suddenly. "She can't know that we didn't make it to him." Skulduggery stayed silent, head tilted. His empty eye sockets gazed at her for what seemed like an eternity before he turned to leave.

Valkyrie removed her coat and placed it over Art's body; his clothes were torn in so many places that they were useless. She pulled his lids closed with two gentle fingers, and a part of her was glad that they stayed shut. _Such a young, gentle boy,_ she thought.

oO0Oo

Valkyrie followed Skulduggery as he carried Art's ruined corpse, following the sounds of fighting until they reached the rest of their group. Solomon was dispatching the last of the Hollow Men as they approached. Ghastly bowed his head at the sight of the dead boy, while Alice and Tanith brought a hand to their mouths. Solomon stood in silence, but it was Emma that Valkyrie watched. The girl stood for a long moment, just looking at Art.

Finally, she moved, stumbling as though she were crossing the deck of a ship in a storm, until she reached Skulduggery. She moved the jacket away to see what damage had been done. Valkyrie watched, helpless, as Emma's eyes filled with tears that rolled down her cheeks, landing silently on his crippled chest.

"He's still warm," she said. She looked at Valkyrie desperate to know what had happened. "Was he alone?" Valkyrie looked at Skulduggery, who tilted his head. They couldn't lie to her.

"Yes," Valkyrie whispered, heart wrenching as she watched Emma fall apart before her.

"Come on," Skulduggery said. "We need to move."

oO0Oo

Emma didn't stay to watch them bury Art. She took her book of symbols and ran to hide somewhere. Ghastly dug the hole in silence, ignoring the ache in his shoulder as he heaved shovelful after shovelful of earth from the grave. Solomon had wrapped Art's body in a blanket, gently hiding his death from the world. Skulduggery stood by the grave while Valkyrie tended to their son.

She held him close, watching as his tiny fingers clutched at a lock of her hair. His deep brown eyes reminded her of her father. He had Skulduggery's face, and China's beauty. She kissed his little hand gently.

"I love you sweetheart," she whispered to him. He let out a giggle, showing his gums as he grinned. He was so small, her little boy, wrapped in a bundle of blankets in her arms. He wriggled constantly, his miniature legs kicking as his arms waved. He was an odd little thing, and Valkyrie loved him dearly.

Her thoughts turned Notorious, and she began to wonder how anyone could be so cruel. He was a monster, slicing his own son to pieces and leaving him to die of infection, all alone in his own little dungeon. She swallowed her tears, holding Eyren a little tighter. Nobody would ever hurt her precious child. She'd never loved anything so fiercely.

She cuddled him and cooed at him, delighted when he giggled. Valkyrie adored every inch of her baby, and she stayed there for what felt like hours, just holding him, watching him clutch her hair while his big brown eyes took in everything all at once, until Skulduggery returned. Ghastly and Solomon followed him, Ghastly covered in dirt and carrying a muddy shovel.

"He's buried now, out in the grounds under the apple tree. We did the right thing bringing him back here," Skulduggery said.

"You think so?"

"I do. Now enough of that, we can grieve another day. For now, we should be enjoying time with our son."


	2. In Your Dream

_**The Beginning of The End: Chapter Two...**_

_**Alright guys, I'm determined to keep this one going, not only for my own piece of mind, but for the people that are actually still reading the series :) Thanks again for all the wonderful support you've given me, every review is appreciated. Over my time on the site I've been introduced to some wonderful writing, and I hope this continues! Also my apologies to those reading this, mistakenly labelled it as a sequel, it's actually an alternate sequel to Wistful Kisses. It is going somewhere I promise, thank you 'aperson' for bringing that to my attention.  
**_

**oO0Oo**

Alice found Emma curled up in a ball on the floor, hiding in her darkened bedroom. She was scribbling symbols furiously in a tattered notepad, crossing out and redrawing them like a person possessed. Crumpled pages lay strewn around her like confetti. She didn't look up as Alice entered, oblivious to her surroundings. Alice sighed, unsure of what to say. She wasn't good with words, she was good at fighting. She wanted her sword. Or sleep.

"Watcha drawing?" she asked, sliding into the space beside Emma. The curly-haired girl flinched, startled by the noise. She blinked at Alice, her pen still tracing absent shapes on the page resting in her lap.

"What're you doing here?" Her voice was thick, rasping as though she'd been crying. It was too dark for Alice to see her face.

"I came to see if you were alright, Val and Skulduggery said I should leave you but...I just needed to see you. I couldn't sleep ," she said. Emma watched her in the dark, and Alice frowned as the girl's hand continued to draw shapes on the page. The shapes seemed ordered and neat, too dark to make out properly, but Alice could swear Emma knew what she was drawing without looking. She brushed it off and shook her head. "They were right, I'll go." She got up to leave, eyebrows knitting together in a concerned frown. As she reached the door, Emma spoke.

"It's not over," she said quietly.

"What?"

"With Art. It's not over." She went back to drawing. Alice watched her for a long moment, unsure of what to make of her words. She chose to ignore them, closing the door softly. Emma was grieving, she probably didn't know what she was saying.

oO0Oo

Valkyrie awoke with her head on Skulduggery's chest. He was perfectly still, ribs exposed as he slumbered in a meditative state. The lights of his soul flickered gently, slowly morphing around his bones in a hue of red and gold. Their son lay in a cot in the corner of the room, his tiny form wriggling as he began to whimper.

It was still dark out, and Valkyrie sighed as she slipped out of bed to tend to her baby. She lifted him from his nest of blankets and rocked him back and forth gently. His whimpers ceased and he stared at her with such beautiful eyes. She slipped back into bed beside Skulduggery, who stirred and sat up, eye sockets trained on his baby. Gently, Valkyrie handed Eyren to his father.

"My little boy," Skulduggery said in a tone she'd never heard. It was the tone of a man who held the world in his hands. He was elated, and she watched the lights around him blossom with pride, shining a deep green. "I can't wait to teach you how to kick people," he cooed. Eyren giggled, delighted.

"Stop talking about violence in front of our baby," Valkyrie chastised. Eyren reached out and grabbed Skulduggery's finger, shoving it straight into his mouth. Skulduggery chuckled as the baby clamped his gums on the appendage and sucked avidly.

"I think somebody's hungry," the skeleton said, gently removing his finger and handing his son over. "I believe that's your job." Valkyrie settled him more comfortably against her as he fed, his tiny hands twitching happily. Skulduggery was silent for a moment, his hand stroking his son's soft shock of dark hair. "He isn't afraid of me," he said.

"You're his father, why would he be?"

"I'm a skeleton, I thought the empty holes in my head would make him cry." He shook his head wondrously. "It astounds me how someone so young can adapt so quickly."

"Of course he can, he's too young to know what he should be scared of, he's a _baby._"

"Do you think it'll stay this way?" he asked, his tone indecipherable. "That he'll continue to love me, I mean?" Valkyrie felt her eyebrows raise in surprise. Eyren had stopped feeding and dosed off against her, so she carefully gave him to Skulduggery, nestling into her husband as she settled back down in bed.

"You're his father. There is nobody in this world that could ever love you as much as your baby. Well, except me of course." She kissed his cheekbone lightly and felt him smile. He cradled his son so carefully, his skeletal limbs curving gently around Eyren's tiny body. He snuffled and reached out in his sleep, grabbing his father's finger. As Valkyrie dosed off, she felt her heart swell with happiness.

oO0Oo

_The sky was empty of stars, the moon hidden away somewhere as Emma wandered through the grounds of the mansion. The grass swayed around her legs, though she could feel no breeze as she padded barefoot towards a tree in the distance. Everything was bathed in a silvery light, despite the lack of a moon. Her hair fell around her shoulders in soft ringlets, dyed black in the pearly glow._

_A figure stood below the tree, looking so far away, but Emma found herself there in only a few steps. She stood behind the figure, a boy, not speaking; she didn't want to startle him. She felt like she knew him._

_He turned, and she flung herself at him, hysterical tears pouring down her cheeks. It was a dream, showing her emotions was okay. Nobody could see them because she was asleep, and this was all in her head._

_Art held her close, stroking her back soothingly. His skin was perfect, no scars, no bone-deep gashes or flaps of flesh seared away from the bone. There was no infected wound, no mottled bruising, no broken bones. He was whole and he was alive in her dream. He was also shirtless, which was a bonus for her. His jeans were still shredded, but they were there, hung from his hips as usual._

_"Hush now," he said softly. "I'm here. You're with me." _

_"You died, I saw you dead," she sobbed. _

_"I'm not dead, I'm just resting," he replied, pulling back and tilting her chin to look at him. "I need your help to wake me up. I need you to draw me a picture." _

_"A picture?" He nodded.  
_

_"I can show you, but only once. You have to promise me you can remember it," he said, his cat eyes gleaming in the dark. "You have to help me." He pressed his palm flat to hers, and she watched as her skin burnt. There was no pain as the design etched itself into her hand, blackening her delicate skin as it seared her flesh. It was a myriad of interlocking lines and shapes, a cacophony of pure power. It was a symbol written by the Faceless Ones.  
_

_He leaned in to kiss her as she gasped awake._


End file.
